


First.

by hexxjoon



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - High School, F/M, First Crush, First Kiss, First Love, Friends to Lovers, Male-Female Friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-03
Updated: 2018-10-03
Packaged: 2019-07-24 12:40:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,655
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16175273
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hexxjoon/pseuds/hexxjoon
Summary: Falling in love is weird.Some say it feels like the sun coming out after a long winter.The star of blazing heat peeking its head out from behind cold blankets of snow.Others say it feels like being bitten by a poisonous snake.The sharp teeth of the snake sinking into your flesh, pumping venom into the vein.But for mostThey don’t even realize they’re in love.So to repeat a previous sentence.Falling in love is weird.In which Jisung Park discovers one of the best things in life.





	First.

**Author's Note:**

> Hello!  
> Thank you for clicking on this fic about our sweet maknae Jisung Park!
> 
> I wanted to write him as a normal teenager, doing normal teenager things.
> 
> So here this 3-week long wip
> 
> prepare for this 11.6K word beast.
> 
> I'm really proud of this fic and I hope you guys enjoy it.
> 
> I will be posting social media posts from Jisung under the fic link on twitter so follow me [joonieslolita]
> 
> Thank you to Cal who helped me beta and edit this fic!  
> Follow her on twitter as well, [mygloonatic]
> 
> Enjoy!

Falling in love is weird.

Some say it feels like the sun coming out after a long winter.  
The star of blazing heat peeking its head out from behind cold blankets of snow.

Others say it feels like being bitten by a poisonous snake.  
The sharp teeth of the snake sinking into your flesh, pumping venom into the vein. 

But for most

They don’t even realize they’re in love.

So to repeat a previous sentence.

Falling in love is weird.

 

For the past 16 years of his life Jisung Park had no interest in girls or dating.

All the other boys in his grade were chasing after girls, writing messy love letters and mumbling nervous confessions under the school’s cherry blossom tree.

But not Jisung.

Jisung was too busy perfecting his kickflip.

He was getting pretty good at it if he did say so himself.  
(he wasn’t)

 

 

After the umpteenth time of him falling on his ass, Jisung was pretty close to skate boarding straight into the Han River.

“Jisung-ah!” 

Jisung’s ears perk up at the sound of his older brother, Jaemin.

“What do you want, dofus?” the younger grumbles as he fiddles with his shoelace, picking at the frayed ends. 

“Mom told me to tell you to come home, giraffe” Jaemin says matter of a factly.

Jisung stands up, tucking his skateboard under his arm before answering. 

“And why couldn’t you just text me?”

A deep blush spreads across Jaemin’s cheeks.

He chuckles before reaching to scratch the back of his neck.

“I wanted to see the boba shop girl…” he admits reluctantly. 

Jisung huffs, blowing his bangs up with a gust of breath.

This said ‘boba shop girl’ has a name.

It’s Hyuna.

And Jaemin had a huge crush on her.

She was the reason why Jaemin had a newfound love for boba and why his wallet was always empty.

Since his brother was in love, Jisung had to suffer too.

 

If you listened closely you could hear Jisung’s wallet crying.

 

“I’m not giving you money” the 16 year old deadpans.

His “adult” brother starts to whine and pull on his sleeve.

“Please Jisungieee~ Hyung really wants some boba~” Jaemin quickly resorts to aegyo, knowing his little brother absolutely hates it.

Pulling his arm from his brother’s grasp, he huffs before shoving Jaemin’s head backwards, causing the latter to go stumbling backwards.

“Fine”

Without waiting, Jisung starts towards the boba shop.

Jaemin gets his bearings before running up to catch up to his brothers long legs.

 

Jisung sat outside the shop, sipping lightly on a strawberry flavoured boba, rocking his feet back and forth on his skateboard.

He’d been sitting here for a good 10 minutes after getting his drink, but alas Jaemin was still inside talking to Hyuna.

“This sucks” he mumbles, taking a long sip.

 

He sets his drink down and focuses on his feet, swinging the board back and forth at a steady pace. 

The sound of the plastic wheels sounded pretty nice on the cement so he had that.

He begins to pick up the pace, pushing the board side to side more rapidly.

He’s so focused he doesn’t notice his brother coming out of the shop, giddy with excitement.

And if there is one thing you should know about Jisung is that he startles easily.

Really easily. 

 

Just as he’s about to bring his board back from it’s swing to the left Jaemin speaks.

“Yo! Guess who got some digits!” he yells, scaring the younger.

Jisung visibly flinches, lifting his feet off the board, which sends it flying.

The two boys barley have enough time to react before Jisung’s board goes barreling into a pedestrian, knocking them off their feet and onto the ground, they’re belongings going flying into the air.

Jisung sits in shock, staring at the crumpled form of a person laying on the ground next to his skateboard.

He’s eventually pulled out of his shell shocked state by a voice.

And it wasn’t Jaemin’s.

 

“What the fuck!” 

 

Well he surely wasn’t expecting that.

Jisung jumps to his feet and runs over to the foul mouthed stranger.

“Oh my god I’m so sorry! It was an accident! I wasn’t paying attention and my bro-”

The person lifts their head and Jisung is met with a fiery pair of brown eyes belonging to that of a teenage girl.

“Save it blondie!” the girl snaps, leaning over to grab her scattered belongings.

Jisung attempts to help, picking up the girls cellphone and passing it over with a apologetic smile.

The girl glances at him before ripping the phone from his grasp harshly.  
“Thanks.” she mumbles.

After all of the scattered belongings are safely tucked into the strangers backpack, Jisung attempts to help the girl up.

“I can do it myself!” she snaps, standing up momentarily before her knees buckle and give out.

Jisung reaches out to grab her arm, balancing her out before she can fall to the ground.

“Are you sure?” he smirks.

The girl rolls her eyes before grumbling a reply under her breathe.

“I’m fine.”

 

The two stand in silence, looking at each other as they try to figure out what to do next.

Jisung takes this moment to look at the girls features.

Long chocolate brown hair.

Two light brown eyes.

A long slender nose with an upturned tip.

Strong arched eyebrows.

Full cheeks with light freckles dusted across.

And last but not least

A pair of plump pink lips.

 

Jisung opens his mouth to say something but is interrupted by his brother.

His brother.  
To be honest, Jisung forgot about him.

 

“Jisung are you just gonna stand there like an idiot or are you going to help her?” Jaemin asks, with a hint of something else in his tone.

“Uh oh- yeah yeah” Jisung breathes, tearing his eyes away from the girls.

He silently leads the girl to the bench he was previously sitting on and helps her sit down.

“Uh just erm- stay here” he sputters before turning around to go and grab his skateboard.

Upon his return the girl is examining her ankle, rolling down the top of her ankle socks to reveal a red and swollen ankle.

“Aish!” the still nameless girl hisses.

Jisung turns to his brother and barks an order at him.

“Jaemin go get ice!”

Jaemin laughs before saluting.

“Yes boss!”

 

After a few minutes of sitting with an ice pack wrapped around her ankle, Jisung breaks the silence.

“So uh- I’m Jisung”

The girl side eyes him before answering.

“Hyejoo.”

He blinks.

“Huh?”

“My name, It’s Hyejoo”  
Jisung nods, turning his head forwards.

“I’m sorry for running you over with my board… I didn’t mean too” he mumbles.

“It’s okay, I’m sorry for getting mad at you, I just get really worked up real easily. I realize now that it was an accident.” Hyejoo answers, pushing a strand of hair behind her ear.

After a few moments of awkward silence Jaemin’s plunking steps are heard.

“Jisung we’re 30 minutes late for dinner! Mom’s gonna kill us!” he fretts, pulling his brothers hand.

“Alright alright! I’m coming idiot!’ Jisung barks.

Jaemin succeeds in pulling his younger brother up to his feet.

“Wait Jaemin!- let go!” the younger grumbles.

He pulls his hand from Jaemin’s grasp and turns back to Hyejoo.

“Are you going to be okay?” he asks, leaning over to be eye level with the girl.

“I’ll be fine, My sister works nearby” she smiles lightly, pointing at the pizza plaza across the way.

Jisung nods.

“Well it was uh- nice meeting you Hyejoo” He bows.

“Again I’m sorry for almost killing you with my skateboard”

Hyejoo breaks into a laugh.

“Too bad I wasn’t more injured, I could’ve sued” she jokes.

Jisung smiles, nodding before waving, turning around to catch up with his brother.

 

Once they’re a good distance away from the shop Jaemin starts to chuckle.  
The younger furrows his brows before daring to ask what his idiotic brother was laughing about.

“What?” he cautions.

Jaemin could be rather unpredictable with what he’s thinking. One time he started laughing because he thought of an rice cake that oddly resembled a baby.

“Oh nothing little bro” the latter stifles his laugh behind a closed fist.

Jisung feels his ears growing hot.

Another thing he hates, aside from aegyo is when someone isn’t letting him in on something.

“Seriously! What is it dumbass?!” he snaps, yanking his brothers arm down.

“Yah! Yah! Yah!” Jaemin yelps, wrenching his arm from Jisung’s grasp.

“Tell me!” the younger urges.

“Okay I’m just gonna say it.”

“Say what?”

A huge smile breaks across Jaemin’s face before he shouts three words Jisung never expected.

“JISUNGIE’S IN LOVE!” He cheers, jumping up and down.

Jisung’s jaw drops and he lets out a weird sound, something similar to “gauLHUH.”

“WHAT?” He yells.

 

Jaemin mangages to stop his giggling and spits out a proper sentence.

“That Hyejoo girl! You were totally ogling her!” he chuckles, bumping his shoulder against his brothers.

“Was not!” he argues.

“Was too!” Jaemin shoots back.

“She was hurt and I was trying to help her, you ass!” he defends.

Jaemin shrugs.

“Sure” he sing songs.

Jisung looks over at his brother and then places two hands on his right shoulder and shoves him with all his might.

Jaemin lets out a sound of surprise as he stumbles, falling into a nearby bush.

“Owwww!! You dick! This is a thorn bush!!” Jaemin cries out.

Jisung adjusts his skateboard under his arm as he continues to walk.

“Oh go cry into your boba girl phone number.”

 

+

 

After the great skateboard assassination attempt of 2018 it’s safe to say Jisung was embarrassed. 

Not because he could’ve seriously injured the girl but because his brother would not shut up about it.

For the entire weekend Jaemin would pop his annoying little head into Jisung’s room and make kissing noises while chanting “Hyesung! Hyesung! Hyesung!”  
Jaemin almost didn’t live to see monday.

Almost. 

There was one instance where Jisung was sitting in the den, playing mario kart, blissfully unaware of Jaemin’s lurking presence.

With his tongue poked out from between his lips, Jisung sends out a green shell, knocking the kart in front of him off the track.

He lets out a small noise of triumph, throwing a fist in the air, before hunching his shoulders once more.

Jaemin suddenly surges forward and grabs his younger brother by the shoulders, yelling out “HYESUNG!” as loud as he could causing Jisung to start throwing punches, thinking he was being attacked. 

Which he kind of was.

One of Jisung’s fists of furry catches Jaemin in the side of the head, knocking him of balance and onto the ground.

“Aw shit!” Jaemin hisses as he cradles his head, rocking back and forth.

Jisung’s eyes widen and he starts to laugh really hard, slowly crawling to his brothers side.

“Jaemin ohmygod I’m sorry! I thought you were an attacker or something!” He apologizes in between laughs, coughing on his tears.

“Yah! You idiot!” the older whines, slapping Jisung in the shoulder weakly.

Jisung is too busy laughing his ass off to notice Jaemin getting his second wind.

The brown haired boy crawls over to the couch and grabs a pillow before relentlessly beating Jisung with it.

“Hahahaha- STop- stOP- ohmygod I’m gonna pee hahaha” Jisung squeals, attempting to dodge Jaemin’s pillow attacks.  
“You could’ve killed me!” Jaemin screeches, oddly like a pertodatchyl. 

Jisung only laughs.

 

+

 

Eventually Monday rolls around and both Jaemin and Jisung make it out alive, much to both boys dismay.

 

Their mother has made it her mission to wake them up at the asscrack of dawn to start getting ready for school.

Monday’s are hectic in the Park household.

Really hectic. 

 

Jisung leans against the bathroom door, towel slung over his shoulder yelling at the top of his lungs for his brother to get out so he could shower.

“Nana! You idiot! I need to shower!” he yells, pounding his fist against the door repeatedly.

Eventually Jaemin’s voice is heard through the bathroom door.

“Patience little one! Perfection takes time and I’m worth every single second” followed by a wet kissing sound.

Jisung only groans and lifts his body weight from the door when he hears shuffling steps coming closer to the door.

Jaemin pulls open the door and slides out on his socks, shooting finger guns at his little brother, showing off his perfectly styled hair.

Jisung only glares before an idea pops into his head.  
He lets his towel drape to the ground before he puts his plan in motion.

Jaemin is much to busy taking selfies to notice the evil look on the younger’s face.

Jisung rushes forward, tangling his fingers in his brothers hair and rubbing, ruining Jaemin’s ‘masterpiece’

“Looking good bitch boy!” Jisung laughs before taking off running.

Jaemin lets out a loud scream before taking after the little brat.

 

“You asshole! That took me 40 minutes!” he yells as he tries to catch the tall blonde.

Jisung lets out a small squeal as he jumps over the ottoman and turns into the kitchen, rushing to hide behind their mother, Sunmi.

“Mom! Jaemin’s trying to hurt me!” He whines, wrapping his arms around her waist.

Jaemin eventually appears in the kitchen, visibly angry with hair going in every possible direction.

“Jisung ruined my hair! I have a date after school!” He complains.

Their mother only laughs lightly before pulling Jisung’s arms from her waist.

“Jisung go shower, you smell,” she comments earning a noise of complaint from Jisung. She then pushes her youngest son in the direction of the stairs.

Once Jisung is out of the room Jaemin opens his mouth to speak but is hushed by his mother’s fingers waving through his hair gently, fixing the destruction Jisung had caused.

She pulls her hands away after she’s satisfied with her work and places a quick kiss to her son's forehead.

“There, now you look oh so handsome. Just like your father.” she admires, holding her hands to the boy’s cheeks.

Jaemin only smiles, pressing a kiss to his mother's wrist.

“Thank you.”

 

+

 

After the morning's hair fiasco, both boys are showered, their lunches are packed and off they go to school.

The walk isn’t long, a good 10-15 minutes at best.

5 if you wake up late.

 

As soon as they made it to the gate Jisung broke off from his older brother and his teasing, not being able to escape fast enough in his opinion.

“See you later Jisungie!” Jaemin calls as Jisung quickly shuffles in the direction of his friends.

With a huff Jisung throws himself onto a bench in between his best friends, Chenle and Jeno.

“What's up your ass?” Jeno remarks, taking a bite of a breakfast burrito.

Jisung rolls his head back before groaning.

“Monday’s up my ass” he deadpans.

Small snickers are heard from Chenle’s side of the bench, but Jisung chooses to ignore them.

“So what did you guys do this weekend?” Jeno asks.

Chenle is the first to speak up.

“Oh! Oh! I went on a date” he winks, brushing his hair back.

Jeno reaches to highfive him while Jisung couldn’t be bothered.

“Ah hell yeah man, with who?”

“Jyuni” 

with the amount Chenle was smirking Jisung thought his mouth was going to make it’s rounds up the side of his face and back down again.

“Cool” Jisung mumbles, fiddling with his the sleeves of his school blazer.

“Well I had work” Jeno fake smiles, weakly holding up a thumbs up.

Jisung finally speaks up about his weekend.

“I almost killed someone” 

Chenle blinks.

“Jaemin surprise you while you’re playing Mario Kart again?” he asks, knowing Jaemin’s habit of scaring the young boy.

“No- Well yes- but that’s not what I’m talking about” he murmurs.

“Then who?” Jeno speaks up with his mouth full of burrito, some flying out and onto Jisung’s slacks.

Jisung reaches his hand out and brushes the crumbs off before answering the question.

“This girl- I was waiting for Jaemin and was rocking my board back and forth, then he surprised me and I accidentally sent my board flying and this chick slips on it- and Uh I think she sprained her ankle.” He finishes, leaning over to take a bite of Jeno’s burrito.

There’s a brief pause before Jeno speaks up.

 

“Was she cute?” 

 

Jisung coughs, mildly choking on the bits of burrito he was currently attempting to swallow.

“I could’ve killed this girl and all you care about is how she looked?” he asks in disbelief.

Jeno pauses for a moment, looking like he is in deep thought.

“Yeah.”

Jisung takes one look at Jeno, then glancing down at his friends burrito before smacking it out of his hand and onto the ground. 

Chenle immediately starts dolphin screeching, drawing attention to the three boys.

Jeno ignores the screech and jumps up, scrambling to pick up his fallen burrito.

“Dude what the fuck! This was $5!” he blubbers, cradling the messy burrito in his hands.

Jisung sighs and pulls a $5 bill out of his backpack and gives it to Jeno.

“Here.”

Jeno looks at the bill and turns his nose away, but reaching out to take the bill.

“Thanks jackass” he mumbles, still upset about his food.

“Your welcome and no Jeno, she wasn’t cute”

‘Lies’ his brain tells him but he ignores it.

She wasn’t that cute.

 

+

 

Jisung didn’t have homeroom with Chenle and Jeno, seeing as they were a year older than him.

But he didn’t mind, he got to have two desks to himself.

Plenty of space to spread out the various books he had, but never got around to reading.

 

He was right in the middle of a wicked game of Fruit Ninja on his phone when his teacher, Mr Seo speaks up, trying to gather his student’s attention. 

“Alright, everybody! Could you pull your technology weakened eyes away from your phones so I can introduce someone?”

Mr Seo stands at the front of the classroom, slightly shifting foot from foot as he waits for the room of 16-year-olds to settle down.

Once a majority of the classroom has pulled their headphones out Mr Seo starts to speak.

“Alright guys we have a new student coming to join us today, she just came back from time in America, which means our class average for English will finally go up” the brunette jokes, earning eye rolls and groans from his students.

In Mr Seo’s defence, the class average was pretty garbage.

Jisung was practically carrying the class on his back when it came to English.

But he wasn’t perfect at it, he could read, write, and understand it almost fluently but ask him to speak it verbally and he’ll stand there like a wet noodle.

 

Mr Seo leans over and gestures for someone who was out of sight to enter the classroom. 

A girl walks into the classroom, looking relatively bored and Jisung swears he’s about to shit himself.

It’s Hyejoo.

A.K.A the girl he almost killed with his skateboard last Friday.

The students, particularly the boys begin to whisper, gawking over the new girl.

“Introduce yourself” the teacher urged, gently pushing the girl forwards.

Hyejoo sighs before bowing lightly.

“Hello everyone, my name is Hyejoo and I just spent the last 2 years in America” she speaks, almost monotone.

‘She’s obviously bored’ Jisung thinks to himself.

He relates, he really relates. 

Her blank eyes look around the classroom, glancing over her new classmates.  
Eventually, she notices Jisung and her bland expression turns into one of mild shock.

Mr Seo takes notice of the interaction and Jisung could’ve sworn he saw a light bulb appear above his head because the next thing he says is something Jisung wasn’t prepared for.

“Hyejoo!” He smiles “Why don’t you go sit beside Jisung? There’s an empty seat right beside him.”

Hyejoo looks like she wants to protest but walks over to Jisung regardless, plunking down in the seat beside him.

She ignores the whispers that swirl around the room and turns towards Jisung.

“Hey Blondie” she mumbles, fiddling with the bottom of her skirt.  
“Hey Hyejoo” he mumbles back.

 

‘Quit mumbling dumbass’

 

“So” Jisung clears his throat “How's your ankle?”

“It’s alright, kind of sore, nothing I can’t handle” She answers, not looking directly at the boy in the seat beside her.

“That’s….good” he nods.

“Yeah.”

 

‘Well that was fucking awkward’ 

 

Jisung leans his head against his desk, not bothering to make any more conversation with the brunette girl.

 

This becomes a routine, Hyejoo and Jisung sitting together and making the smallest small talk possible before turning away and not speaking for the rest of class.

Until Jisung spills his soup on her.

“Jisung what the fuck!” Hyejoo hisses as the hot liquid hits her bare thighs.

Jisung gasps and starts dabbing her thighs with the napkins his mom had packed with his thermos.

“I’m sorry-”  
“Jisung”  
“I totally didn’t mean too-”  
“Jisung”  
“Oh shit! I got it on your skirt too! I’ll pay for the dry cleanin-”  
“Jisung!”

“What!?” He whips his head up to see Hyejoo blushing beet red and takes a moment to look around, noticing his classmates staring at him as he dabbed napkins on some poor girl’s thighs.  
He halts his actions and pulls his hands away, his face beginning to match the color of Hyejoo’s.

After a few moments of silence, Hyejoo breaks out into a wide smile and begins to laugh, loudly.

Jisung chuckles a couple of times before joining Hyejoo in the laughing fit.

“Jisung, Hyejoo! Please be quiet? It’s 9 am on a Thursday” Mr. Seo complains, popping an Advil into his mouth before taking a swig of coffee.

The two’s loud laughs turn into hushed giggles and Hyejoo leans against Jisung for support, as she was about to fall out of her seat.

“How many times are you going to injure me Park?” Hyejoo giggles into Jisung’s ear.

Jisung doesn’t answer, he just tries to stop laughing.

 

‘She has a nice laugh’ he thinks.

 

+

 

After that incident, Hyejoo and Jisung’s friendship had progressed rather quickly.

Jisung found out Hyejoo also hated everyone in their class so that gave them something to bond about.

Among other things.

As fate would have it, the two teens were actually fairly similar.

They liked the same music, shows, food and they both liked playing Mario Kart.

Which birthed a new routine for the two.

Every Tuesday and Thursday the two would go to the arcade after school and play each other (sometimes Jeno or Chenle) in Mario Kart and then he walked her home afterwards.  
(She only lived 3 blocks away from him. That’s why)

 

Hyejoo won in Mario Kart most times, mainly because Jisung let her.

Or so he claimed.

 

“Jisung! Stop throwing shells at me!” Hyejoo whines as she dodges one of the green shells her opponent had thrown at her.

Jisung wheezes before laughing out a response.

“Never! I’m going to win this round!” he beams, eyes focused on the screen ahead of the two.

Hyejoo furrows her brows, poking her tongue through her lips.

“Okay, so get this Jisung-ah” she starts, swerving her character around Jisung’s.

Jisung responds with a grunt.

“If I win, you buy me lunch tomorrow and If you win, I’ll buy you lunch. Sound good?” She challenges.

Jisung glances slightly over at her, raising his brow.

“Alright, You’re on Hyejoo-ah” 

 

Hyejoo ultimately ended up winning.

Jisung really doesn’t want to talk about it.

 

The two teens ended up staying later than usual without realizing, the time being 8pm.  
When Jisung realizes this, he starts to panic.

His mother must be worried sick.

He’s 2 hours late for dinner and 3 hours late home.

 

Jisung quickly jumps up, grabbing his backpack and school jacket.

“Hyejoo we have to leave now! It’s 8pm!” He whisper yells, pulling Hyejoo out of her seat.

Hyejoo’s eyes bug out of her head when she realizes how late it is.

“My sister is going to kill me!” she whimpers.

“My mom is going to kill me!” he responds as they run out of the arcade.

 

Jisung lets go of Hyejoo’s arm and pulls his backpack over his shoulders, breathing heavily as he runs as fast as his long legs will take him.

Hyejoo is shorter than the 6’0 Jisung by a good 7 inches, standing at 5’4 so she’s having a bit of a difficult time.

Jisung glances behind him once he’s 4 blocks from his house, seeing Hyejoo lagging behind by 10 feet.

“Hyejoo!” he yells, “Are you okay!?”

“I’m fine Jisung-ah! Just keep going! I’ll text you when I get home!” she responds.

Jisung nods, not sure if she saw but he continues to run, breaking off from Hyejoo.

 

It doesn’t take him much longer to reach his house, breathing and wheezing heavily as he takes his last few strides to his front door before opening it.

He’s immediately met with his mother who stands from the couch, with worry in her eyes.

 

“Jisung! Where have you been? I was so worried! I thought something had happened to you!” she exclaims, standing in front of her son.

Jisung bows over in front of his mother.

“I’m so sorry mom, I was at the arcade with Hyejoo and we lost track of time” he apologizes, still taking gulping breaths.

“Why didn’t you text me!? I just sent Jaemin out 15 minutes ago to look for you!” She raises her voice slightly, annoyed with her son for being so careless.

“I’m sorry mom” He apologizes again, standing from his bow.

His mother’s hard eyes don’t let up.

“Your carelessness is going to cost your brother a good night’s sleep tonight! He has a very important exam tomorrow!” she hisses, getting angier with the passing minutes.

Jisung feels himself getting angry, he didn't ask for his mother to send Jaemin out.

“I said I was sorry mom!” he pleads, trying to keep his cool.

“Why couldn’t you of just texted me? Your brother would’ve!” she fumes.

‘There she goes, bringing up Jaemin again’

“Why can’t you start being more mature!? Like your brother for example!” She starts.

Jisung lets out a deep exhale, keeping his head down.

“Jaemin is very mature! He has a job, a girlfriend, and good grades! He’s always on time for dinner and he lets me know if he’s going to be late!” she ranted, not caring about how Jisung felt in that moment.

That was a mistake on her part.

“I'M SORRY I'M NOT PERFECT LIKE JAEMIN!” He snaps, looking up at his mother with angry eyes.

Neither of the two had taken notice of Jaemin entering through the front door moments ago.

“I’M SORRY MY GRADES AREN’T PERFECT LIKE HIS, I'M SORRY I DON’T HAVE A JOB, I'M SORRY I WAS LATE FOR DINNER” He yells, feeling his eyes start to sting.

 

‘Shit, don’t cry, don’t cry’

 

His mother crosses her arms in front of her chest, opening her mouth to respond.

“I’M SORRY I’M NOT LIKE JAEMIN! I’M SORRY I’M NOT LIKE DAD” He chokes out.

His mother’s eye immediately soften and she releases her arms from her chest.

“Jisung…” she sniffles, reaching out for him.

He shakes his head and pushes her arms away.

“No, no no no no” he cries, tears finally escaping from his eyes and rushing down his cheeks.

He turns around and pushes past Jaemin and runs out the door.

 

‘I need to get out of here’

 

As he runs he only starts to cry harder, thinking about his father.

 

+

 

Jisung and Jaemin’s father, Minhyuk had died 4 years ago.

 

Minhyuk had liked to walk home from work and was on his way home from a later shift when he was mugged, ultimately losing his life.

It had crushed the Park family.

Sunmi had lost the love of her life.

Jaemin had lost his role model.

And Jisung had lost his best friend.

 

Through his whole life, Jisung had grown up hearing people drone on and on about how much Jaemin looked like their father.

But Minhyuk would always shake his head and put his arm around his youngest son, ruffling the boy's hair before answering.

“So does Jisungie! We could be twins!” He’d beam, looking down on his son.

They really could’ve been twins.

 

Once Jisung stopped running, he found himself at Han river, in front of the boba shop.

 

‘Great, I’m in front of Jaemin’s favourite place’

 

He hobbles over to the nearest bench and slumps down, just crying.

Jisung hadn’t cried since the death of his father.

Everything he had kept bottled up, all the comparisons he had heard, all the times he had needed help and his father wasn’t there had just come rushing to the surface.

Jisung wraps his arms around himself, sobs racking through his body.

For few moments the only sound to be heard was Jisung’s cries, but soon enough that was broken by soft footsteps.

Jisung whips his head up and standing in front of him is Hyejoo, dressed in a large oversized sweater and shorts.

“Jaemin called me”She says softly.

The sniffling boy only nods, scotting over to make room for Hyejoo to sit.

The short haired girl sits down, wrapping her arms around Jisung, bringing him into a tight hug.

Jisung forces himself not to cry, not wanting to appear weak to his friend.

“I’m sorry about your dad” Hyejoo whispers into his ear, running a hand through his hair.

“Jaemin told you?” he croaks out, throat hoarse from all the running and crying he had done today.

Hyejoo nods, continuing to run her fingers through his hair.

Jisung eventually unwraps his arms from his body and returns the hug Hyejoo was giving him, burying his head into her shoulder.

“I can’t begin to understand what it would be like to lose someone like that” Hyejoo mumbles.

Jisung feels her arm’s wrap tighter around him as she prepares to speak again.

“My sister is the only person I have, It’s just been me and her my whole life” Hyejoo admits.

“We’ve bounced from place to place, I’ve never truly had a home.”

Jisung hugs her tighter in return.

“I’m sorry.” He murmured. 

Hyejoo pulls away and smiles at Jisung sweetly.

“Don’t be, I don’t mind.”  
Jisung nods, not knowing what else to say.

Hyejoo sniffs before standing up, then holding out her hand to Jisung.

“Let’s get you home” she advised.

Jisung sighs before taking the girls hand and standing up.

Hyejoo didn’t let go off his hand as they began to walk.

And quite frankly, Jisung didn’t want her too.

 

So they walked to Jisung’s house, hand in hand.

 

Once they arrived in front of Jisung’s house, then did Hyejoo let go of his hand.

Jisung turns to face Hyejoo before speaking.

“Thank you, Hyejoo-ah” he grinned.

Hyejoo smiles.

“Anytime Jisungie, anytime, remember! You owe me lunch tomorrow!” she laughs lightly before turning around and walking away.

 

Jisung stood there for a moment, watching Hyejoo walk away before a realization struck, hitting him like a bus.

 

‘Fuck, I like Hyejoo'

 

+

 

After coming to the sudden realization that he did, in fact like Hyejoo, Jisung really didn’t know what to do.

But before he dealt with his new found feelings, he had to apologize to his mother.

And that’s exactly what he did.

 

When he walked into his living room he found his mom sitting on the couch, tissues littering the coffee table.

Once she took notice of his presence she immediately stood up, tears welling up in her eyes.

Jisung didn’t give her a moment to speak before he was dropping to his knees, folding himself into a full bow.

“I’m so so sorry mom” he blubbers, feeling himself begin to cry again. 

Sunmi drops down beside Jisung, wrapping her arms around him.

“No Jisung, I’m sorry” she apologizes.

 

“I should’ve paid attention to how you were feeling, but instead I just thought about myself and for that I’m sorry.” Sunmi cries, holding tighter onto her son.

Jisung eventually returns the hug.

And the mother and son just sit there on the floor, hugging.

Until a voice breaks the silence.

“You guys are hugging!? Without me!?” Jaemin whines.

Sunmi laughs and beckons Jaemin over, pulling him into the hug as well.  
Jisung doesn’t even fight it when Jaemin wraps an arm around him, half hugging his little brother.

“I’m sorry Jisungie” Jaemin mumbles

“I’ll be a better brother from now on” he continues.

Jisung lets out a hum and rests his head against his brother's shoulder.

 

‘You don’t need to change’

 

He didn’t need to change.

 

+

 

Eventually, the next morning rolls around and Jisung wakes up as usual.

He brushes his hair.

He puts on his school uniform.

He messes with Jaemin’s hair.

And he walks to school.

 

As soon as he walks into class he swears he could’ve had a heart attack.

In their usual seats, there sat Hyejoo.

She wasn’t doing anything in particular, she was basically just breathing.

But boy was Jisung smitten.

 

Since Jisung had never had a crush on someone before he had absolutely no fucking idea what to do.

 

Hyejoo eventually takes notice of Jisung’s lanky figure and smiles at him, calling him over.

 

‘Shit fuck shit motherfuck’

 

Once he finally gets his giraffe limbs to move he walks over to his desk and sits down, as stiff as a board.

Hyejoo doesn’t seem to take notice of Jisung’s behaviour and proceeded to make conversation.

“How are you? Are you doing better?” She asks sincerely.

Jisung sputters over his words for a moment.

“Ah- yeah I’m- I’m doing better” he answers with a nod.

Hyejoo smiles and bumps Jisung’s shoulder.

“That’s good, I’m glad” she hums, before turning away.

Jisung peels his eyes away from the back of Hyejoo’s head and looks out the window, down by the school’s cherry tree in time to see his classmate Huang Renjun confessing to a girl from an older class.

He watches as Renjun hand the girl a letter, looking rather nervous.

 

‘Must be a love letter’ he thinks.

 

The girl unfolds the letter, reading it quickly before refolding it and pulling Renjun into a hug.

 

‘She accepted him, that’s great’

 

Jisung smiles softly, feeling happy for Renjun.

 

Minutes later he sees Renjun enter the classroom, smiling from ear to ear.

One thing that’s important to know about Jisung is that he doesn’t really think before he does things.

Jisung quickly gets up from his seat and walks over to Renjun.

“Hey- uh, Renjun?” he asks timidly  
Renjun snaps out of his daze and looks at Jisung.

“Hey Jisung” Renjun answers, slightly confused on to why the taller boy was talking to him.

Jisung digs his fingernails into the sleeve of his blazer, taking a deep breath.

“How do you confess to someone?”

Renjun looks taken aback, surprised by Jisung’s question.

“I’m sorry what?” he sputters.

“I saw you...talking to that girl” Jisung mumbles, rubbing the back of his neck with his hand.

Renjun breaks into a deep blush, bringing his hands up to cup his warming cheeks.

“Oh”

The two stand in silence for a moment before Jisung nods and turns to walk away.

“Wait! Jisung!” Renjun calls.

Jisung quickly whips his head around, waiting to hear what the latter had to say.

“Write a letter.” Renjun smiled, likely thinking about the letter he had written for his new found love.

Jisung looks at Renjun, who just stared back at him.

“Okay...thanks” he coughs, not really knowing how to respond.

Renjun looks behind him, glancing at Hyejoo before smiling.

“Good luck”

The blonde boy widens his eyes before shaking his head.

“Oh no no no no- I don’t- what?” he rambles.

Renjun laughs before turning away.

 

‘Well he’s about as useful as a wet paper towel’

 

+

 

Later that day during lunch, Hyejoo and Jisung were standing at the concession stand, Jisung waiting for the shorter girl to pick out her food so he could pay for it.

 

‘How the fuck am I supposed to write a letter? Do I even want to tell her?’

 

Jisung stood there, chewing on his bottom lip, thinking about what Renjun had told him earlier.

 

‘I mean I should want to confess right? That’s what people do isn’t it?’

 

Truth be told, he’d never thought about doing anything like this before.

He’d never had a crush on anybody before.

Sure people have confessed to him before.

In Fact, he was rather popular with the girls, receiving 2-4 anonymous love letters a year.

 

‘Do I really want to expose someone to my shitty writing?’

“Aye Jisung?” Hyejoo mumbles, interrupting Jisung’s thoughts as she tries to choose in between a slice of pizza and a hamburger. 

 

Jisung hums, glancing down at her.

“You should let me dye your hair,” she says like it's the most normal thing in the world.

Jisung’s eyes basically fall out of his head at those words.

Dye his hair?

What the fuck.

“Dude no!” He protests, shaking his head violently.

Hyejoo looks up at Jisung and furrows her brows.

“Dude, yes” she retorts.

Jisung’s face was so scrunched up he could pass as a cabbage patch doll. 

“No” he shoots back.

Hyejoo stomps her foot lightly and looks up at Jisung with big brown eyes.

“Pleaseeee?” she begs, tugging on Jisung’s sleeve.

Jisung stands there for a moment, looking into Hyejoo’s eyes.

And his resolve absolutely crumbles.

“Okay”

Hyejoo’s eyes light up like a Christmas tree and she starts jumping up and down.

“Ah yes! This is going to be great! I’m thinking maybe blue? Or maybe a natural colour like brown? Black?” she rambles, clapping her hands together, thinking about all the ways she could mess up Jisung’s hair, and most likely his life.  
“Yeah, heh” he grumbles, mentally slapping himself for agreeing.

 

+

 

And that’s how Jisung ended up sitting in his kitchen at 1:25 PM on a Saturday afternoon with his best friend, about to dye his hair blue.

 

Hyejoo had a towel wrapped around his shoulders, using a hair clip to hold the ends together.

“Hyejoo…” Jisung frets, shifting in his seat nervously as he watches his friend mix the hair dye into the conditioner.

Hyejoo turns around holding the bowl of hair dye in her hand, looking at Jisung quizzically, still mixing. 

“What?” she responds.

“I’m not sure about this..” he hesitates.

Hyejoo sets the bowl down on the counter and pouts lightly.

“You’re going to look so great! I swear! Blue is totally gonna suit you” she says as she tries to convince the nervous boy in front of her to dye his hair.

Jisung just looks at her.

“And plus, it’s only temporary! It’ll wash out in a week” she continues.

He still doesn’t seem convinced.

A moment of silence passes.

 

“Do it, no balls” she says smugly, crossing her arms.

Jisung’s eyes harden.

“Fucking paint me blue like a smurf, Hyejoo.” he deadpans. 

 

+

 

2 hours, 1 large pizza, and many insults later, Hyejoo had successfully dyed Jisung’s hair bright blue.

And damn, did he look good.

The two stood in the bathroom of Jisung’s home, Hyejoo standing behind Jisung, running her fingers through his hair as she blow dried it, fluffing it lightly.

Now Jisung would never admit it but he loved the feeling of Hyejoo’s fingers running through his hair.

It was comforting and to make the experience even better, Hyejoo smelled like raspberries and vanilla.

But he’d never admit it, so don’t ask about it.

 

“You look so good!” Hyejoo giggles, putting down the hair dryer.

Jisung leans over, running his fingers through his newly blue hair.

“You’re not wrong” he marvels.

He straightens his back, looking in the mirror.

Hyejoo quickly pulls her phone out of her back pocket and flips it to the rear camera, preparing to take a picture.

Jisung takes notice of this and sighs, rolling his eyes before he leans down, wrapping an arm around Hyejoo’s waist as she snaps pictures.

“Come on, smile grumpy smurf!” Hyejoo teases.

The blue haired boy sighs before flashing a bright smile.  
Once Hyejoo is content with the number of pictures she’d taken, that’s when Jisung unwraps his arm from her waist.

Hyejoo frowns at the loss of contact but Jisung isn’t paying attention, he’s thinking about if he’ll still look cool on his skateboard if he had a smurf hair.

 

As Jisung is about to thank Hyejoo, Jaemin pops his head into the bathroom and whistles.

“Well don’t you look adorable little brother” he smirks.

“Thanks, dickwad” Jisung smiles back.

Hyejoo chuckles at the two brothers, brushing her hair back.

“Hey, Hyejoo?” Jaemin asks.

“Hmm?” she answers, still fiddling with her hair.

“Do you think you could dye my hair too?” he smiles sweetly.

Hyejoo’s eyes light up again and she bounces on the balls of her feet.

“Yes yes! What colour?” she asks.

“Mmmm maybe pink? Hyuna recently dyed her hair blonde and I wanted to do something fun” he beams.

“I brought some things for hair bleaching! I could do it now!” she offers.

Jaemin nods enthusiastically.

“Yes! Let’s do it!” 

Hyejoo turns towards Jisung and smiles sweetly.

“Jisungie, could you run to the drug store and get me two boxes of pink hair dye?” 

Jisung nods and reaches his hand out, waiting for someone to hand him some money for the hair dye.

Jaemin takes notice of this and quickly reaches into his pocket and pulls out a couple of $20 bills.

“Here you go, Jisungie” he smirks lightly.

Jisung rolls his eyes and grabs the crumbled up bills from Jaemin’s outstretched palm and goes to buy the hair dye.

‘Why do I have to go get the hair dye?’ he sighs internally.

 

Once at the store, he quickly gathers the two boxes and shuffles over the cash register.

He’s met with a girl who looks around his age, and who very noticeably perks up when she notices Jisung walk up the counter.

“Hi!” she chirps.

“Hi- uh just these please” he responds, pushing the boxes of hair dye forwards.

The girl takes the boxes and begins to ring them up.

“So, are these for your girlfriend…?” she asks.

Jisung flushes before shaking his head.

“No- no they're for my brother” he responds, tapping his foot lightly.

The girl, whose name tag read “Jooyeon” blushes at this and prepares to ask another question.

“So, you’re single?”

Jisung’s heart falls out his ass, shocked at the bold question.

So he does the only thing he knows how to do.

Panic.

“UhIfelloffmyskateboardtheotherdayandilostmymemoryandiactuallyhavenoideawhoiamsoireallycannotanswerthatquestionthankyougoodbye” he rambles before placing the bills on the counter, grabbing the boxes and running out of the store.

He was halfway home when he realized something.

 

‘I didn’t get Jaemin’s change’

‘fuck ‘

 

It really wasn’t Jisung’s proudest moment.

 

+

 

When Jisung: mortified teenage boy finally makes it back to his house, he’s met with a nice scene.

Hyejoo and Jaemin are sitting on the couch, Jaemin’s head is wrapped in tinfoil laughing to each other while watching some English comedy show named ‘Family Guy’  
(With the subtitles on for Jaemin)

“I’m back,” he says, alerting the two of his presence.

Hyejoo turns her head and smiles 

“Oh hi!”

She gets up.

“You got the hair dye!” She cheers and grabs the boxes from Jisung’s large hands.

Jaemin looks at Jisung puzzled.

“Where’s my change?”

Jisung freezes.

 

‘What do I tell him? The truth or that I just like to tip well?’

 

Jaemin stares at his little brother, waiting for an answer.

“The cashier flirted with me and I gave her the money and ran away” he mumbles.

“Eh?” Jaemin strains, not hearing Jisung.

“I said, the cashier flirted with me and I panicked, gave her the money and ran away”

Jaemin breaks out into loud laughter, throwing himself around as he squeaks.

Jisung turns towards Hyejoo, expecting her to be laughing as well.

But instead, she stands there with pursed lips and flushed cheeks.

‘Mm, weird’ he thinks but shrugs it off.

Hyejoo breaks out of her little ‘moment’ and looks at Jaemin.

“Yah twat! Stop rolling around! You’ll get hair bleach everywhere!” She scolds.

Jaemin stops his movements but doesn’t stop laughing.

He still doesn’t stop laughing as Hyejoo leads him to the sink and washes the remaining bleach out.

Jisung is mad at this point.

“Jaemin! Shut the fuck up!” He snaps.

The older manages to lower his cackles to giggles and tries to sit still.

“You ran away?!” He snickers.

“What a pussy! Hahaha!” He continued.

‘That’s it’

Jisung darts from his spot in the doorway, attempting to hit Jaemin before Hyejoo jumps in front of him.

 

“Stop it! No! No killing anyone!” She yells as she tries to hold Jisung back.

“I’m not gonna kill him! I’m just gonna hit him!” He frowns, picking up Hyejoo like she was a feather and moving her out of the way.

“Jisung!” She yells, hopping on his back.

Jaemin has run out of the kitchen at this point, going straight for the living room.

Jisung simply adjusts Hyejoo on his back, making sure she doesn’t fall off and runs after Jaemin.

“Jaemin! Stop laughing at me! It was embarrassing! I wasn’t prepared for her to flirt with me!” He breathes, circling the coffee table.

The blue haired boy feels Hyejoo’s arms tighten around his shoulders lightly before she begins to yell in his ear.

“JISUNG PARK! HALT” 

He halts.

She gets down.

“Okay so, can I finish doing your brother's hair before you kill him?” She offers, eyes soft.

Jisung grumbles, biting his bottom lip.

“Alright, fine.”

She smiles.

“Thanks, Jisungie”

She then begins to walk into the kitchen, beckoning Jaemin to follow her.

“Yeah thanks, Jisungie” he mocks.

“Yah!” Jisung raises his arm to hit Jaemin.

“Jisung! We had a deal!” Hyejoo calls.

Jisung stomps his foot and drops his hand to his side.

 

‘This is bullshit’

 

Thanks to peacekeeper and hair stylist extraordinaire, Kim Hyejoo, both Park brothers had newly dyed hair and neither boy sustained injuries caused by the other.

It was considered a win in the trio’s eyes.

 

It was 6PM when Hyejoo had to go home and Jisung took the duty of walking her out.

After sliding their shoes on, Jisung and Hyejoo walked to the front gate, pausing to say goodbye.

 

“Thanks for doing our hair today Hyejoo-ah” Jisung grins, feeling confident in his new hair colour.

“I told you, you’d look good! Didn’t I?” Hyejoo states smugly, obviously proud of herself.

Jisung chuckles and throws his head back, smiling.

“I guess you were right..”

“Of course I was”  
Hyejoo nods, pulling her long hair into a low ponytail.

“I’m going to head out now, I can’t be late for dinner” she mumbles, checking the time on her phone.

“Oh okay, get home safe yeah?” He cautions.

“Of course, I’ll text you”

And with that Hyejoo turns around and walks down the street.

Jisung stands there for a few minutes watching her disappear down the street before heading inside.

 

+

 

Jisung spent the following Sunday writing, attempting to pour his feelings into a single letter.

It proved nearly impossible.

But Jisung was creative and he had ideas on what he wanted his letter to be.  
He didn’t want it to be normal like every other letter he’s seen before.

And Hyejoo was not like every other girl.

She was different.

So Jisung decided to write his letter in English.

 

Now Jisung was good at writing, and he was good at English.

But he can’t seem to put those two talents together.

 

With a frustrated grunt, Jisung bangs his head against his desk.

 

‘Pull your dick out of your ass Jisung!’ 

 

Reaching out quickly, he grabs the piece of paper in front of him and crumples it quickly, proceeding to then throw it in the direction of his overflowing trash bin.

Jisung pushes his desk chair across the floor, sliding over to his bed so he can scoop up his phone.

‘10 likes on Instagram’  
‘3 new snapchats’  
‘6 new texts from: the sadistic sad boys’  
‘1 new text from: Hyejoo’

The blue haired boy smiles and swipes the notification open.

‘Hyejoo: jisunggggggg'  
‘Jisung: hyejooooooo’  
‘Hyejoo: do you want to hang out today’  
‘Jisung: you dyed my yesterday’  
‘Hyejoo: correct’  
‘Jisung: meaning you saw me yesterday”  
‘Hyejoo: also correct’  
‘Jisung: I can’t, I have homework :(‘  
“Hyejoo: boo u whore☹️’

 

Jisung rolls his eyes jokingly and throws his phone back onto his bed before returning to writing.

 

It’s two hours later when Jisung is hanging off the side of his bed when he finally gets a surge of inspiration.

Slipping off his duvet and onto the floor, he scrambles up to his desk, pulling himself into his chair.

He starts writing feverishly, keeping an English book right beside him in case he forgot a word.

 

He’s in the middle of a paragraph when Jaemin bursts into his room unannounced.

“Aye Jisungie! Wanna go get some boba?” he asks, standing in the doorway.

Jisung whips around in his desk chair standing up to lean over, snatching a throw pillow from his bed, then proceeding to throw it at Jaemin’s head.

The pillow hit’s Jaemin directly into the face causing him to scream.

“What the fuck!?!?” Jaemin yells, holding his nose.

“I’m busy!” Jisung screeches, reaching for another pillow.

The older boy’s eyes widen at the sight of the plush weapon and he scrambles backwards, shutting the door behind him.

Jisung sets the pillow down and slowly sits down, returning to his writing.

 

‘Mother fucker, I lost my train of thought’

 

+

 

 

It was hours when Jisung finally, finally finished his letter, his brain drained from the amount of Korean to English he had translated. 

He reads it, giving it a once over.

With a bleary smile, Jisung gently folds the letter, sliding it into a white envelope he had taken from his mom’s stationery.

He pushes his legs out from under his desk, the chair going backwards.

With a loud groan, Jisung stretches out his stiff limbs.

“Ahhhh fuuuuuuck” 

He cracks his neck lightly, listening to the popping sounds before picking up the letter and walking over to his backpack.

Sitting on his knees, Jisung unzips the black bag and gently tucks the envelope into the section meant for laptops, which would ensure its safety. 

After making sure he had everything he needed for school the next morning, he collapses into his bed, head hitting the pillow with a soft 'ploof.'

‘Tomorrow’s the day Jisung, it’s either gonna be the best or worst day of your life but you’ve got this’

“Fighting!” he whisper-yells, pulling his hand into a fist momentarily.

He turns onto his side, burrowing his face into his pillow with a satisfied purr. 

He was so tired, he fell asleep almost immediately.

Which meant he forgot to set his alarm.

Fuck.

 

+

 

By the time Jisung wakes up, it’s already 9:45 am.

“HOLY FUCK!” He yells, throwing his covers off his legs and scrambling to get his school uniform on.

He pulls his oversized t-shirt off his head and slots his arms into the white button up issued from his school.

Next, he attempts to pull his slacks on while buttoning his shirt at the same time.

Big mistake.

The lanky boy ends up losing his balance, falling to the ground with a loud thud.

He groans at the impact but he really doesn’t have time to feel pain.

‘Come on Jisung you dumb fuck MOVE’

He pulls himself to his feet and then pulls his slacks up completely, running his belt through the loops, and then proceeding to button his shirt.

He quickly throws his blazer on, pockets his tie and grabs his backpack, flying out the door.

But not before grabbing his phone and the lunch his mom left for him on the counter.

Don’t judge him, food is important to him.

 

Jisung pants as he runs down the street, cutting in front of other pedestrians.

‘Go giraffe go!!” He could basically hear Jaemin’s taunts.

When he arrives at school the gate is closed.

“Fuck” he mumbles, looking around for another entrance to no avail before settling on climbing said fence.

He climbs the fence, looking oddly like a spider as he does so, his long limbs spreading across the length of the 10-foot fence.

 

Once he gets to the top of the fence he makes a realization.

How the fuck is he supposed to get down?

But luckily he isn’t left wondering for too long because he hears the voice of a security guard yelling at him.

“Hey, kid!!! You're late! Get down from there!!” The guard calls.

Jisung starts to panic.

“What class are you in?!”

There’s only one option.

And he then proceeds to roll right off the fence and onto the ground.

Unorthodox but it got him down, didn’t it?

Jisung lifts his head, looking around before he sees the security guard heading right for him.

‘Shit shit shit shit shit shit’

He quickly rises to his feet and breaks out in a dead sprint towards the school building.

Once inside, he needs to figure out how to make it to Mr Seo’s undetected.

His teacher won’t be too upset about him sleeping in and being late.

Mr Seo is just cool that way.  
He lets Jisung call him Johnny.

Occasionally.

 

‘Time to activate stealthsung.’

 

Jisung lowers himself closer to the ground, hunching towards the stairs, looking around for any superiors that could catch him.

 

‘The coast seems clear stealthsung’

 

He nods at his own thoughts and proceeds up the stairs, quickly, but quietly.

Lucky for him Mr Seo’s classroom is right next to the stairway so all he has to do is slide open the door to the classroom and he’s safe right?

Wrong.

He slowly slides open the door to his classroom and is met with someone who most certainly isn’t Mr Seo.

Instead of the tall brunette, he’s used too, in front of him stands a shorter man with dirty blonde hair styled into a mullet.

‘Mr. Seo must be sick’

 

The substitute smirks and leans over the podium.

“Well hello there, nice of you to join us…” he trails off, silently asking for Jisung’s name.

“Jisung Park Sir” he bows, embarrassed.

“I’m Mr Lee, care to explain why you were late?”

The blush on Jisung’s cheeks only reddens.

“I slept in Mr Lee, I’m sorry” the latter stammers.

Mr Lee decides to stop bugging Jisung and dismisses him to his seat.

Jisung, who is quite flustered starts in the direction of his and Hyejoo’s shared seats only to find someone else in his place, sitting right next to Hyejoo.

And It wasn’t just anyone.

It was Lee Haechan.

Lee Haechan was the vain of Jisung’s existence, the two of them being in competition since kindergarten.

There was no particular reason why they were in competition, one day 5-year-old Haechan and Jisung were playing with legos and Jisung had built this totally awesome lego building and Haechan, being the little dick he is, knocked it down.

So from that day forward, the two were stood on the fine line of enemies and “I tolerate you.” 

 

Jisung stops in his tracks, halting in front of Hyejoo and Haechan.

Hyejoo offers Jisung an apologetic smile and mouths “I’m sorry”, while Haechan just smirks, leaning closer to Hyejoo.

‘Asshole’

Jisung’s face tightens and his glare turns cold.

Ignoring Hyejoo’s confused yet concerned eyes he huffs and walks to the back of the classroom, slumping down beside Renjun.

“Nice hair” Renjun compliments.

Jisung runs a hand through his blue locks, staring at the back of Haechan and Hyejoo’s heads.

“Thanks” he grumbles.

He watches Haechan lean over and whisper something into Hyejoo’s ear, causing her to laugh.

Jisung feels his eye twitch.

“Hey” he leans over to Renjun, “How long have they been friends?” he asks.

Jisung has never seen Haechan and Hyejoo hangout before.

“Oh, they have two afternoon classes together, they usually sit together,” Renjun answers nonchalantly.

‘What? Two classes together? Why didn’t I know that?’ Jisung wonders. 

It’s not like he expected Hyejoo to tell him everything, he’s just confused on to why he’s never seen Haechan coming out of Hyejoo’s classroom when he goes and picks her up on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Jisung watches as Hyejoo turns to Haechan and gives him one of her world-famous smiles.

Jisung sinks lower in his seat, feeling defeated.

‘Don’t think too much about it sung, they’re just friends.’

Hyejoo leans closer to Haechan, whispering something in his ear.

Haechan laughs.

‘Right?’

 

 

+

Hyejoo attempts to approach JIsung after homeroom but is brushed off by the taller boy, who just shoves his headphones in his ears and ignores her calls.

Yeah, he’s a little butthurt.

 

It’s when lunch rolls around he realizes he can’t avoid Hyejoo any longer.

It really sets in when Hyejoo yanks him by his backpack straps and drags him into the courtyard.

 

“Yah! What the hell?!” Jisung yells, struggling to get out of the girl’s grasp. 

“I’ve been trying to talk to you all day! Are you avoiding me?” Hyejoo asks, letting go of Jisung.

The latter shrugs his backpack back onto his shoulders, not bothering to answer.

A “are you kidding me” look morphs onto Hyejoo’s face and she scoffs.

“Really? You’re not going to talk to me? What the hell is your problem?” she scowls, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

“I don’t have a problem. Just thought you wanted to hang out with your best friend Haechan” Jisung replies.

 

Deep down Jisung knows he shouldn’t be acting this way, he knows that it's immature but he can’t seem to control his emotions.  
Ever since he was young he hasn’t been able to control his jealousy well.  
There was one instance where he and Jaemin were fighting over something petty and the older ended up with bruises and a sprained wrist.

 

Hyejoo stares at him for a moment, perplexed.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” the shorter girl’s eyebrows are furrowed and her lips are pushed into a scowl. 

Jisung only shrugs, not meeting her gaze.  
“Is that why you’re upset? About me sitting with Haechan?” 

Once again, she receives no answer.

With another scoff, she unfolds her arms from her chest.

“I didn’t ask Haechan to sit with me! He just plunked down! I asked him to move but he said you weren’t coming today!” she yells, throwing her arms up in the air.

“You guys were all cozy and giggly so I wanted to give you some space,” Jisung states simply.

“Some space? What do you think we’re dating or something?”

Jisung doesn’t answer, he just looks down.

Hyejoo leans down so she could look at Jisung’s face, which was flushed.

“That’s it isn’t it?”

He shrugs.

“If you’re dating him, you’ll have no time for me,” he admits, it wasn’t the full truth but it was the truth.

Hyejoo’s hard gaze wavers but returns quickly.

“What kind of person do you think I am!? I’d never abandon my friends.”

Jisung looks up, apologetic.

“And plus, I don’t like Haechan! I like someone else.” she shot, throwing her arms up yet again.

 

‘She likes someone else? Well great, this is just fucking great.’

 

The taller boy snaps his head up, looking at Hyejoo.

“Is that so? Who do like then?” he retorts.  
Hyejoo huffs, her anger rising.

“I LIKE YOU IDIOT!” she admits, face red with anger or embarrassment, Jisung really can’t tell. 

Jisung freezes.

“I- I…” he sputters.

 

‘Tell her you like her back dumbass! Speak Jisung! Speak!’

 

No matter how hard he tries, he physically can’t respond.

Seconds, which feel like minutes, go by without a single word from Jisung.

The latter watches as Hyejoo’s eyes well with tears, a few making their way down her pink cheeks.

God he wants to tell her, he wants to tell her so bad.

But he just can’t get the words out.

Suddenly a floodgate of tears make their way down Hyejoo’s cheeks and she turns around and breaks into a run.

“Hyejoo! Hyejoo! Comeback!” he yells, but the crying girl doesn’t turn around.

He begins to run after her, but she’s already much farther ahead.

He has no chance of catching up.

He slows to a stop, panting lightly.

“I- I like you too….” he whimpers.

But Hyejoo doesn’t hear him.

She’s already gone.

 

+

 

Hyejoo didn’t come to school next day.

To say Jisung was disappointed when he didn’t see the small brunette walk into their shared morning class was an understatement.

When he realized she wasn’t coming, his shoulders dropped and and he buried his head in his arms, which lay folded on his desk.

He wanted to fix this, he wanted to apologize and tell Hyejoo he liked her back.

He wanted to hold her hand and tell her everything he had written in his letter.

Wait

His letter!

He still had his letter!

But how was he going to get it to her?

He spent a majority of the day trying to figure out what to do.

He had already tried texting Hyejoo the previous day but to no avail. 

It’s safe to say Jisung was screwed.

 

+

 

 

During dinner, he was obviously upset about something but his mother didn’t want to impose and face Jisung’s teenage wrath.

 

But Jaemin was never one to leave things be.

So after dinner, he marched right into Jisung’s room and spoke some brotherly words of concern.

“Why the fuck are you such a depressed bitch?”

Ah, sibling love.

 

Jisung weakly turns his head to face Jaemin.

He knows he should tell his older brother, he might be able to help.

“I’m in love” he mumbles.

Jaemin’s face stays in the bitchy confused look he had previously.

“Ok I know that, why are you sad then? Shouldn’t you be making out with Hyejoo right now?”

Jisung whines.

“We were having an argument and she let it slip that she liked me and I- I said nothing!” he sits up, slapping his thigh.

“Woooooooow you dumbass” Jaemin marvels. 

Jisung shakes his head, the blue dye now severely faded after taking a shower.

Some shitty $15 hair dye if you ask him.

 

“Help me” he whimpers, not wanting to be teased right now.

Jaemin seems to take wind of this and walks over so he could sit on Jisung’s bed with him.

“Little bro, I can’t help you and you know this.” he starts.

Jisung looks up at him, a tad mad.

“This is something you have to fix yourself” His older brother finishes.

The younger lets out a noise of frustration.

“But I don’t know how!” Jisung complains.

Jaemin clicks his tongue.

“You know Hyejoo better than anyone right?”

Jisung nods.

“Then you know her habits, places she goes when she’s upset, don’t you?”

Jisung thinks for a moment before a lightbulb appears in his brain.

“I do! I do! I know!” he bounces.

“Go and try to find her tomorrow and talk to her, you need to rest up right now” Jaemin smiles, petting his little brothers head before getting up.

“Jisung! Fighting!” the older yells.

“Fighting!” Jisung replies.

 

+

 

The next morning, Jisung decided to go to the place he knew Hyejoo would be right before school.

The arcade.

He walked into the small arcade and was instantly greeted by the colorful flashing lights of the various machines.

It didn’t take him long to find Hyejoo, who was just sitting at the mario kart machine.

Their game.

Jisung clears his throat gently, not wanting to scare Hyejoo.

He sees her visibly tense before slowly turning her head in the latters direction.

“Hi” he speaks.

“Hi,” she replies, not meeting his gaze.

He slowly walks closer to Hyejoo.

“Can we talk? Please?” Jisung asks meakly.

Hyejoo shakes her head, getting up and grabbing her bag.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea,” she says as she attempts to walk past Jisung.

Jisung catches her arm gently, turning her towards him.

“Please...Hyejoo-ah” he asks again, looking into her eyes.

Hyejoo’s eyes flicker, hesitantly.

“Alright”  
Jisung lets go of her arm.

‘Here we go Jisung, tell her! No backing down!’

The taller takes a deep breathe, rubbing his hands together gently.

“I- I” he begins, already fumbling over his words.

Hyejoo looks just as nervous as Jisung.

“What is it Jisungie?” she asks, letting the nickname she uses for him slip accidently.

Jisungie.

Jisung decides he can’t say this in korean, so he settles for Hyejoo’s second language.

“I like you, Hyejoo” He fumbles out in broken english.

The shorter girl’s eyes widen and her lips part, surprised by the confession and Jisung’s use of english.

“What?”

“I like you” he repeats, feeling a weight lifted off his chest.

Hyejoo covers her mouth with her hands, shocked.

“I’ve liked you for awhile, I realized it that night when you helped me at Han river” Jisung says, this time in korean.

“B-but that was almost 5 days ago” Hyejoo sputtered, her words muffled but her hands.

“I know…I’ve liked you for longer than that but I just didn’t realize it” he doesn’t know where this confidence is coming from, all the words he wanted to tell Hyejoo rushing to the surface.

“I’m so fucking sorry I didn’t answer you on monday, I was so shocked, I really didn’t expect it- god I felt like such an asshole, I’m so so sorry, The last thing I wanted to do was hurt you” he rambles.  
“And fuck, seeing you cry? I wanted to cry too, I feel so bad” 

Hyejoo removes her hands from her mouth and places them on either side of Jisung’s face.

“Please don’t feel bad, I’m sorry for blurting it like that, It’s not how I wanted to confess” she explains.

“You were going to confess?” Jisung asks, confused.

Hyejoo nods, rubbing her thumbs along Jisung’s cheeks.

“Oh,” he mumbles softly.

The shorter girl goes to remove her hands from Jisung’s cheeks, but is stopped by Jisung himself, holding her hands in place.

“Did you mean it? Like you actually like me?” he asks, leaning into Hyejoo’s hand.

She rolls her eyes.

“Of course I like you dummy! I like you Jisung Park” she confesses, speaking the last bit in english.

Jisung breaks out into a wide smile.

“Well, I like you too! We like each other!” he laughs, letting Hyejoo remove her hands from his face.

Hyejoo smiles in return, giggling.

“Well, then Miss Hyejoo Kim” He speaks officially.

Hyejoo looks up at him.

“Will you be my girlfriend?”

The brunette’s smile only grows wider.

“Of course I will Mr Jisung Park, Only if you’ll be my boyfriend”

Jisung bounces on his feet giddy.

“I wouldn’t want to be anything else” he smiles so wide he feels as if his cheeks are going to burst.

“The that settles it, we, Jisung Park and Hyejoo Kim are now officially boyfriend and girlfriend” Hyejoo giggles.

Jisung pauses for a moment.

“C-can I kiss you?”

The blushing girl gently nods.

Jisung surges forward, cupping both Hyejoo’s cheeks in his hands, looking into her eyes.

God, he loves her eyes.

He slowly lowers his lips to Hyejoo, the latter meeting him halfway for a kiss, lightly gripping his wrists.

It was perfect.

The flashing lights of the arcade games danced across their faces as they kissed.

Jisung couldn’t image a better place to have his first kiss.

His first kiss.

In front of the first video game, he ever loved, with the the first girl he’d ever loved.

Eventually, the two reluctantly break apart, resting their foreheads together.

 

“Did you have pancakes for breakfast? Your lips taste like syrup” Hyejoo asks, breaking the moment.

Jisung pulls further away from his girlfriend so he doesn’t laugh in her face.

“How’d you guess?”

“I like sweet things”

“And you like me” Jisung adds.

“And I like you” she confirms.

Upon hearing those words the taller boy swoops down for a quick peck before lacing his fingers with Hyejoo’s.

“Well I like you too” he smirks.

Hyejoo tightens her grip on Jisung’s hand.

“Let’s go we’re late for school”

Jisung’s eyes widen.

“FUCK.”

 

In the end, what was on Jisung’s letter didn’t matter.

Saying the words to someone’s face was so much better in person.

So much better.

 

the end.

 

+

 

epilogue.

 

Hyejoo and Jisung dated for nearly 10 months before Hyejoo ultimately had to move.

The two were reluctant to part but broke up, mutually agreeing it was better for the both of them. 

But not before sharing some amazing memories.

Jisung taught Hyejoo how to skateboard.

Hyejoo taught him how to dye his own hair.

Hyejoo couldn’t stay on balance for longer than 3 minutes and Jisung always got hair dye on everything.

But the latter didn’t mind, to them, their significant other was the best at everything they did.

They said ‘I love you’ after 3 months.

They went on double dates with Hyuna and Jaemin.

They to amusement parks with Jeno and Chenle.

And they spent as much time as possible at their special place.

The arcade.

 

After they broke up and Hyejoo moved, Jisung’s favourite places turned bittersweet, as they were Hyejoo’s favourite places too.

They didn’t talk much after Hyejoo moved but Jisung knew if he needed her, she’d be there for him in a heartbeat.

And he’d do the same for her.

 

They say you never forget your first love and Jisung can attest, that it’s true.

Jisung will never forget Hyejoo Kim for as long as he lives.

He’ll never forget his first love.

Never. 

 

P.S  
(Jisung eventually learned how to do his kickflip.)


End file.
